Sunday, October 13, 2013

A Twenty One Larkin Salute (from Blog Reader Jason)

About two weeks ago, I received an email from blog reader Jason saying that he had some extra Barry Larkin cards that he'd like to send my way. A couple of quick emails later and they were in the mail (in exchange for about 45 assorted Red Sox and Padres cards for him). Jason ended up sending me 21 different Larkins - most of which I didn't yet have (or at least I haven't written about in my ongoing Barry Larkin Collection). While it's true that all of the new Larkins will (eventually) get their chance to shine in their own post in the collection, I thought it'd be fun to countdown the 21 for today's post.

For my countdown, if I didn't yet own the card, the helps it move higher in the rankings. However, a truly iconic Larkin card is tough to beat, even if I already own it. So - after ordering the cards - let's reveal them in order from least best to most best (since there's no such thing as a bad Larkin card)!

#21: 1988 Donruss (a nice card - but one that I wrote about a long time ago here)
#20: 1997 Donruss (I haven't scanned nor written about many '97 Larkins yet)
#19: 1996 Leaf Preferred (another year that I haven't done much scanning for yet - this is a new card to my collection)
#18: 1997 Select (so much foil along the right hand side!)

#17: 1996 Pinnacle Aficionado (a nice card, except for the creepy floating head image on the side of the card)
#16: 2001 Leaf Rookies & Stars (Larkin was definitely not a rookie in '01)
#15: 2001 SP Authentic (I don't think I've ever opened a pack of SP from any year)
#14: 1994 Upper Deck (the back of this card is ten times better than the front image)
#13: 1996 Upper Deck (is Larkin posing next to a pond? If so, this card needs to rank much higher!)

#12: 1997 Topps Gallery (the gold borders don't do it for me, though I get the artistic tie-in)
#11: 2001 Topps (I'm a sucker for the blue border of this set)
#10: 2001 Fleer Ultra (a solid card on both front and back)
#9: 1998 Pacific (I love almost all things Pacific - and I wish I could find an unopened box of the stuff to open for myself)!
#8: 1997 Score Hobby Reserve (I think this is a parallel)
#7: 1998 Upper Deck Retro (I've opened a tin of this before - it was a good time)!
#6: Fleer Sports Illustrated (Nice card stock, great photography - a good looking set)!